Johnny drove into the parking lot of the station. He looked down at his watch. Fortunately, he was on time today so he wouldn't have to do latrine duty. He entered the station and went towards the locker room.

"Mornin." Johnny said to Roy.

"Hey. How was your days off?"

Johnny took off his jacket and hung it up in his locker.

"It was great. I took Sandra out to dinner on Friday and then we went hiking a couple days later. We cut the hiking kind of short though cause it started to rain."

"So are you guys going out again?"

Johnny buttoned up his uniform shirt. "I hope so, I had a great time."

"The infamous words Gage utters before he gets dumped." Chet said as he came in and went to his locker.

Roy tried to keep the smile off his face as Johnny and Chet geared up for their usual bantering.

"So, who is this brave soul who decided to take a chance and go out with you?" Chet inquired as he took his shirt off.

"None of your business Kelly." Johnny said as he shut his locker and got ready to head to the kitchen.

The klaxon went off.

"Squad 51, Engine 37, structure fire at 144 Palmdale road. 144 Palmdale road, cross street Harbor, timeout, 3:40."

John and Roy both got into the squad, got the address slip from Cap and left.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sandra sat at her desk typing up the report Mr. Thompson needed. Her mind kept drifting back to Johnny. She really liked him and she had a great time on their dates. She thought back to their previous one.

They had gone hiking and in the middle of walking the trails, it had started raining. They hurried back to Johnny's rover where he took them to a cafe. They drank their coffees and found out more about each other. She learned that he likes bowling, being outdoors, and horseback riding.

Her daydreaming abruptly ended when Richard started yelling at her.

"Where are the files that were on my desk?!!"

"What?" Sandra asked confused.

"There were some very important files that I had on my desk. I was about to give them to Mr. Thompson!! You were by my desk just a few minutes ago and now they're gone!! So you must've took them!!"

"I told you, I don't have them!!" Sandra said back panic-stricken.

He looked her up and down with a nasty look. "I knew that someone like you would be useless working here. If you don't give me those papers back, I'll report you to Mr. Thompson!!"

"What's the problem?" Eli asked as he walked up beside Richard.

"This doesn't concern you so leave!!" Richard barked at Eli.

"Actually it does. If you would've kept your cool and actually took the time to think instead of immediately jumping on Sandra, you would've remembered that YOU asked ME to take the files to Mr. Thompson."

Eli stared Richard down.

"I think you owe Sandra an apology."

Richard angrily glanced at Sandra before muttering a barely heard 'sorry' and then quickly walking away.

"Are you alright?" Eli quietly asked.

Sandra nodded. "No, I'm not alright. I could've lost my job because of Richard's stupid accusation!"

Eli went to the coffee machine and poured two cups of coffee. He handed one of the cups to Sandra.

She gave him a slight smile before taking a sip.

"Like I said, don't worry about Richard." Eli said in a low voice. "He's just a pathetic racist. Mr. Thompson does all the hiring and firing. Richard has no real power."

Sandra just nodded and listened to Eli as she continued typing up the report she was working on.

Eli glanced around to make sure they were alone before talking again. "So...do you have any plans for tonight?"

Sandra had to refrain from rolling her eyes. "Does he ever quit?!"

"Yes, I promised my sister that I would help her with something."

Sandra didn't want to lie but she didn't know what else to do. She had already told Eli that she didn't want to date him!

She glimpsed up at him and saw an unreadable look cross over his face. Before she could identify it, his face changed to being upset.

"Okay, I'll see you around." He said indignantly before he left.

Sandra sighed again before continuing her report. "This is turning out to be quite some day."

She didn't want to hurt his feelings but this was the third time that she had turned him down and quite frankly, she was annoyed.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Johnny and Roy left Rampart as they drove down the street in the squad.

"Can you believe that guy? A kid gets smoke inhalation and all he's worried about is not getting sued." Johnny said.

Roy nodded. "He's the one at fault since the fire started due to the all the safety hazards."

Johnny nodded as he looked out the window. Roy took a quick glance over at him as he made a turn.

"You know, you've been pretty quiet today. Is everything alright?"

Johnny turned back to Roy. "Yeah, everything's great. I'm just thinking."

Roy peered at him from the side of his eye.

"What, about that rescue that we just had?"

"Yeah, I mean how could that guy keep running that building like that knowing that he was jeopardizing all those people's safety?"

"Money I guess. Some people are so greedy that they'll turn their backs on others just to have it."

Roy thought about how the landlord of the apartment building was more focused on not getting a lawsuit than caring about whether his tenants were okay or not.

After they pulled into the station bay, Johnny and Roy headed into the kitchen. Mike was on the couch reading while Chet and Marco were playing checkers.

"Dinner's in the oven." Mike said as he glanced up from his book.

"Thanks Mike." Johnny said as he sat down.

"Hey Gage, you got a phone call while you were out." Chet said without looking up from playing.

Johnny looked up at the clock before looking back at Chet.

"Do you know who it was that called?"

"Yeah, some chick named Sandra." Chet finally broke his focus from the board and looked at Johnny.

"Was that the brave soul that went out with you?"

"Oh, ha ha." Johnny said in a mocking voice before going to the dorms to call Sandra back.

He dialed her number and waited for her to answer.

"Hello?" Sandra said as she picked up the phone.

"Hey Sandra." Johnny said.

"Oh hey Johnny. How's everything going?"

He thought back to this morning and about the apartment fire that the station had went to. He thought about the little boy who was in critical condition due to breathing in too much smoke and the other injured people.

"It's alright, there was a pretty bad fire this morning and there were some people that got hurt."

"Oh, that's too bad. I'm sorry to hear that." He heard Sandra say sympathetically.

"What about you?" Johnny asked.

"I'm alright too. Not the greatest day at work."

Johnny remembered how Sandra had a ridgid boss.

"Your boss again?"

"No it was--" Just then, the klaxon went off. "Station 51, car accident at 922 Wilmon Road."

"Listen Sandra, I gotta go but I'll call you back okay?"

He heard Sandra say a hurried bye before he hung up and went to the squad.

Roy handed him the address slip as the station pulled out and headed to the scene.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Natalie drove down the quiet neighborhood street. She looked at her watch and saw that it was almost 7 o'clock. She knew that Sandra would eventually get worried about her since she usually called whenever she thought that she would be home late.

Natalie had been stuck in traffic for almost an hour before she was finally able to take a shortcut through a few side streets.

As she turned a corner, she was only a few blocks away from her house when BAM! A car going the wrong way on a one-way street hit her straight on. She felt her body slam into the steering wheel and dashboard before being jolted back.

The car that hit her zoomed off shortly before the sound of sirens filled the air.

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